Some devices, such as smart phones, are so useful for managing various functions of a person's life that people tend to take their devices wherever they go. Such a device can contain information that is valuable to the owner, such as contact information for people with whom the owner frequently communicates. Indeed, people now often rely upon such a device's storage of contact information to the extent that they might not feel the need to remember that contact information.
Such a device may also store information such as a person's calendar, which may include information regarding meetings and appointments about which the device's owner wants to be reminded. Without the device's scheduled reminders, the owner might forget to attend an important event. People have come to rely heavily upon devices in order to help them to remember when and where they need to be at various dates and times.
Such a device often will contain information that is personal and private to the device's owner. A device can sometimes be used to take photographs, to store photographs, to send photographs to others devices, and to receive photographs from other devices. A person might use his device to send and receive text messages. Photographs and text messages stored on a device often will represent sensitive information that the device's owner would not want to be seen by strangers.
Some devices are designed to be portable, and, therefore, relatively small in size and light in weight. The variety of functions that such a device provides is made possible by sophisticated technological components that the device contains. Such components increase a device's expense. This expense makes devices such as smart phones high-demand possessions. The high demand for devices, combined with the ease to which their use can be adapted to different individuals, makes devices especially attractive targets for thieves.
Because owners of these devices tend to take their devices along with them to most places to which they travel, and because these devices are designed to be relatively small and lightweight, it is relatively easy for such a device to be lost or misplaced. A person away from home, at a public venue, might accidentally forget that he set his device down somewhere. Alternatively, a person might not notice that his small and lightweight device has slipped out of his pocket. He might leave the venue without his device in his possession.
For reasons discussed above, the chances of the forgotten device remaining there undisturbed are slim. The loss of the valuable or sensitive information stored on the device, and the cost of replacing the device, can be a serious tribulation for the owner of a lost device. Additionally, to access functionality on a device, one usually has to perform some type of manual authentication process, which can be inconvenient. Embodiments are provided for addressing these and other problems.